


But tomorrow never comes

by junetangerine (culuyetille)



Series: Bruce/Dick Week 2021 ficlets [3]
Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, Not Beta Read, Protective Batfamily (DCU), Roy and Donna cameos, The love is requited they're just idiots about it, accidental love confession
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-14 14:41:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29047827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/culuyetille/pseuds/junetangerine
Summary: Late entry for BruDick Week 2021, Day 3. Prompt: Daddy kink.If the ground opened up to swallow him and his bones melted into the Earth’s core, Dick still wouldn’t be far enough removed from this mess.Dick gets defensive of Bruce and accidentally reveals his feelings for him. It’s not easy for anybody – until it is.
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Bruce Wayne
Series: Bruce/Dick Week 2021 ficlets [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2131053
Comments: 11
Kudos: 70
Collections: BruDick Week 2021





	But tomorrow never comes

Although Dick could function with less sleep than the average person, it still made him cranky, especially on stakeouts. He kept himself alert by listening to Jason and Tim bickering over comms, and he’d been about to beat their fearless bat-leader at barking at them to focus when his phone rang. Roy.

“Hello.”

“Hey, man. How come you didn’t show on Wednesday?”

 _Because I’m stretched pretty thin and can’t remember the last time someone called not to ask for something but to offer ME a hand, for a change_. Instead, what Dick actually said was, “I told you, Batman called me in at the last minute. Two-face had–”

“Yeah, I know, same old, same old,” Roy cut him off dismissively, “standing up your friends for the surly asshole with a monopoly on Truth and Dick Grayson’s Time. There’s loyalty, and then there’s daddy kink, D.”

For a moment there was just raw, wordless indignation; then it just started pouring out of Dick’s mouth.

“I’m so sick of everybody talking shit about him,” he spat, livid. “He’s an easy target because he’s doesn’t waste time pretending that he’s not the smartest person in the room, but let’s be real, if a space murder hornet stings Superman and turns him evil, who’re you gonna call? The goddamn Batman, that’s who. He may not be Mr. Congeniality, but I’d like to see _you_ try being a self-taught specialist in several fields, Mixed Martial Arts master, genius-level tech developer, run a multi-billion-dollar company that is the backbone of one of the largest economies in the East Coast and pretty much the only thing keeping LexCorp in check, and also multiple charity organisations, all while raising five kids with various levels of trauma and putting yourself out there night after night in a fight that can’t be won, but that’s too important to give up on. So, excuse me, but no, it’s not just a stupid ‘daddy kink’ if I have it bad for the best person who’s ever lived.”

There was a little click in Dick’s earpiece and his whole world crumbled as he remembered that Roy’s call had come in just after he had opened the group channel at comms – which meant that his little rant had been broadcast live.

Shit, shit, shit, shit, _fuck_.

Roy was saying something, probably backpedalling, but Dick couldn’t hear a thing over his panicked heartbeat.

“I gotta go.”

If the ground opened up to swallow him and his bones melted into the Earth’s core, Dick still wouldn’t be far enough removed from this mess. What a moron. He thought he’d learned to live with it, he’d worked so fucking hard on his relationship with Bruce, on not letting himself get carried away by imaginary signs and wishful thinking, on keeping it level and making it work so that they could be a part of each other’s lives, a _good_ part. And now… Dick shuddered to think of the disappointment, maybe disgust that would make Bruce’s lips purse, his eyes narrow, and annihilate whatever hard-earned affection he had for Dick by force of that poisonous, absurd love that wouldn’t stop mauling his heart.

(--^^--)

He needn’t have worried. For days on end, Bruce went radio silent. It was another level of hurt to relive the same gutting realization Dick had had back when he’d first left the Manor: he didn’t have to hide, because Bruce wasn’t coming to find him. Wouldn’t fight for him.

The others came, though. Babs approved the blueberry scones of Dick’s favourite café, and he and Donna hung out over the phone for hours, like teenagers. Tim called ahead and they spent an entire afternoon fine-tuning the lenses on Red Robin’s diving helmet and munching on wasabi chips. Cass dropped in at sundown for companionable silence and crap TV. Jay claimed to have been roped into driving over the demon-spawn and half a dozen containers of Alfred’s chicken soup, then ended up cooking them a vegan lunch because _he_ wasn’t completely useless around the house, unlike some people "raised as assassin princes or some such shit,” he seamlessly ducked a tin foil roll thrown by Damian, “and this paprika is like eight months past the expiration date, Richard, you live like this?”

They never mentioned It, or Bruce, which told Dick exactly how dire his situation was.

Part of him wanted to go over and confront the man, look him in the eye and say “Yes, I’m in love with you, get over it, Lord knows I have, now can we please get back to swinging over rooftops and pretending our life choices are sustainable?”

But he was tired, so tired of carrying this alone.

He sometimes thought that he saw or sensed someone watching him during patrol, and not for the first time resented the fact that he was a pitiful goner for the most frustrating man alive.

(--^^--)

Then, because it was completely beyond them to ever do anything un-dramatically, Bruce materialized inside Dick’s bedroom one morning, suit on and cowl off, several days’ worth of stubble on his chin and a wild glimmer in his eyes.

Dick jumped to his feet and was nearly knocked over by Bruce’s ravenous stare, cobalt eyes roaming over him like he was precious.

“I sometimes thought I saw things, but I didn’t dare hope…”

Some might say that it was too little, too late, but Dick’s every attempt at keeping his relationship with Bruce healthy had gotten them nowhere, so he kissed Bruce until they were dizzy, climbed him like a tree, opened wide to welcome every thick inch of him until there was no telling where one ended and the other began, and received his quiet caresses as the promises they were.

_~Fin_

**Author's Note:**

> I’m sorry for making Roy such a blatant plot device. I just needed someone close enough to call Dick on his crap, and around whom Dick felt comfortable enough to spill the beans, and someone who was in on the Batman’s secret identity.


End file.
